One more workshop bit: I had an embarrassing moment in class today, during our discussion re: MFA programs and various writing paths. I mentioned that there were many amazing writers and poets who didn’t have MFAs. When someone asked me for some names….I drew a complete. fucking. blank.
*sigh*
I know that they’re out there, dammit! I promised that I would make a list….
Well, heck, Shakespeare didn’t have one! 😉 Off the top of my head: Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Amiri Baraka (who has taught, but I don’t believe ever finished a degree of any sort), Langston Hughs, Octavia Butler (also taught, and had only an Associate’s degree), Virginia Woolf. In fact, even setting aside the fact that the MFA didn’t exist for most of human history, I daresay that the majority of published writers and poets do not possess one.
But I can never remember anything when I’m put on the spot like that, either.